We are having a heat wave during this month of September. Heatwave or not I always talk to the planner about having some sort of shade for my gear. With extreme heat, it can cause the speakers to shut off and also the computer will not play music.

  We were having a nice outside ceremony. Right before the ceremony everyone was trying to cool down in the bar area and were reluctant to go outside. The venue did provide some umbrellas spread out amongst the chairs.

 The ceremony had two officiants with some who specialized in the Jewish culture while the other focused on the Spanish component.

It was a nice blend of two cultures and the bride and groom left the ceremony with a festive Spanish song.

  For the cocktail hour, we played Spanish bolero music. Bolero is like slow tempo Spanish music. It was love themed. Again everyone was in the bar area and not in the reception area. We had to round everyone out to the reception area so we can do grand entrance.

 Bridal party came out to Big Energy by Latto while the bride and groom came out to Through the Fire by Chaka Khan. We had Spanish and English announcements. We had a bilingual emcee.

But we can tell everyone wanted to dance. And we gave them what they wanted: Lots of Salsa and Spanish hitters to get everyone moving. Of course Bad Bunny was requested and they got him. Bride and groom got a confetti send off which made an awesome picture.

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Black and White Affair had a ball recently at the Double Tree Hotel in San Jose. It is always good to ask for exact details. I was coordinating with the event planners and what stuck in my head was to make sure the playlist was kid friendly. When I think kid friendly I was thinking maybe for elementary school kids. So I recently have done an elementary school event and I was going to use that as my primary playlist and I was going to look up some more disney songs. Then later I asked about the ages of the “kids” and they were high school age to mid twenties. I totally switched up the playlist. I looked at what was trending now and went through my high school lists and pick and chose what I thought would work,

They had a pirate theme and it was a beautiful night. There is something nice about having an event outside. There was a lot of fun energy at the event. Current songs mixed in with club hip hop classics set the vibe. But it is always important to add some latin flavor in mix. California has a lot of latin influence and it is good to have that in your playlist. Although some people may not know to speak spanish but they do know spanish songs to dance to.

So in a nutshell: Know your audience and be able to cater to their requests. Being prepared with a list is very helpful as your base but you need to be able to go with the crowd.

Dj Gamble came through that night. Originally we had booked the event on a Friday and then a few days before the event I was informed it would be on Saturday. I had another event booked that day so I called up Dj Gamble and once again he came through.

A good thing to ask your dj company if they have other members on the team for those just in case moments. Think Black and White Affair for your Dj needs in the Bay Area and now serving the Los Angeles Area.

Recently I have been getting inquiries for Corporate events in the middle of the day. Before this year I would get the calls to do the Holiday party and they had an agenda to follow. Usually at these events employees get recognized and often times they have a raffle to build excitement. The bosses would give some motivational speeches and the folks would have a good time.

These new inquiries recently are for shorter amount of time so about 2 to 3 hours in the middle of the day. I believe more and more companies are doing this. Since the pandemic shut down a lot of activities companies are now having more events to show appreciation to their staff. It does make a huge difference when companies have network and social events for their staff. I worked a day job where my principals would do a lot to bring us together and celebrate us. But the last principal (I am away from that now and ten times happier I may add)  had never showed any appreciation and work was not as fun anymore as it was when we had more functions as a staff.

These corporate events do not need to be fancy. Simple does work. Why not have a catered lunch with a guest speaker with music. Or make it a fun team event and compete for prizes to build up team with an upbeat soundtrack.  It does not need to be fancy or expensive. It makes the work day fun and festive and your staff will appreciate it.

Please call Black and White Affair for your Corporate needs.

When you think of Silicon Valley Big tech powerhouse Applied Materials would be in that conversation. They know how to take care of their employees. They seemed so happy to spend lunch together. They had different campuses come to the Sunnyvale location. They did show love to the new employees by giving them an opportunity to talk about themselves and have a shot of a gift card. It was actually a shot to win. They had the option to shoot a basket or go for a soccer goal. But before that even happen they had Boba for everyone and all kinds of catered lunches.

 The host was joyous and kept the event flowing with his dad jokes and his energy. They had several teams compete for the best time. They had five per group and they had to do some activities and they kept track of their time. They had to walk together in unison and knock off an item off a poie. The teams were divided by department so it built more team chemistry. After the obstacle course they went to the basketball court. The team had to do a layup. Free-throw and a three pointer. Once they made the three pointer then they beeped a horn and the time was recorded.

It was a very festive event that I coordinated with the energy with 70s, 80s and 90s music. I put in some K-Pop in there but also threw in some fun Bollywood. It was a very fun time during lunch and a very good way to put some fun in the workplace.

I am always in the Gilroy area but if you go down a little more south for about 11 miles there is a nice little town called San Juan Bautista. It is a pretty town with a nice vibe tied to it.

Black and White Affair teamed up with South Valley Internet for a family fun event. South Valley Internet is spreading its wings and hitting more areas outside of Gilroy and Morgan Hill. It was an easy set up at Vertigo Coffee Roasters. This is not your typical coffee shop. You can get some beer in the shop and have it outside. The outside area did have a fun party vibe to it.

  I loved this event since I was in charge of the music vibe. We went straight old school and kept it like that the whole time. We did some classic 90s hits and sprinkled some 70s rock then had to do some disco. At events like this I don’t want to play the typical songs that all djs play. I know it’s a good night when people come up to me and tell me they haven’t heard these songs in years.

  SVI raffled out a new ipad and Vertigo gift cards. The folks who came enjoyed the home made ice cream and pizzas that they were giving out and people loved the artist who was drawing guests.

If you are having any event and want to make it memorable please call Black and White Affair

Sometimes you may think why not have a grand event in your back yard. I have to say most backyards may not be as fancy but if you live in the south county area some folks have more real estate to have a grand event. A few months ago I did a fun quincenera in San Martin. The house had plenty of acres and a nice paver area for the dance floor. Last week, I returned to the house and they now had overhangs to provide needed shade and lights. It gave it a really nice look. The place could consider maybe having more events since its so spacious and there is plenty of parking but that is besides the point.

We had the ceremony as the groom’s dad was the officiant. Five minutes before the ceremony we played the military wake up call to get everyone in their seats. Ceremony was a nice one then it went straight to the cocktail time. There was no grand entrance since bride and groom didn’t leave the area to take pictures and were able to partake in the cocktail hour.

We did the first dance to pantera and there were many parent dances. Then the rest of the night we had open dancing. There were some guest performances with folklorico dancing and grandma and niece had a duet. Then we had a surprise jam session with the groom on his electrical guitar. Truly a very talented family. No two weddings are ever the same.

Party was very nice and they had a party planner that set up chairs and the coolest thing I saw there were was hot taki stand.

Every party is never the same. And of course I had one that was way different when it came to music programing. The night started off with 90s alternative. It’s a rarity that we go that route but there is a lot of good music back then by Alanis Morrisette and Green Day and Sheryl Crow. Then when it was dance time we went Spanish music.

The classic Spanish music I went for the last hour. The crazy thing was the whole night no one requested any songs till the last 10minutes. They did give me an awesome list to work off.  Again no party is ever the same. I see their list and use their list and try to add songs that would feed that vibe.

Timbiriche was the group of the night. Also Intocable was well appreciated. It seemed like these songs were sung by the guests. We did sneak in some modern English dance songs but the songs of the night had to be Spanish.

When it hit 11, we had to stop the music but the guests went back in the house to continue the party. Songs that were getting down to after were Ven Bailalo by Angel Y Khriz, Meneaito by Gaby, La Botella by Mach and Daddy and Atrevete Te Te by Calle 13. These are definitely party songs that can get the party rocking.

Think Black and White Affair for your latin party events.

I would usually do the sound for graduation for Mt. Madonna in Gilroy. I did it 2018 and 2019 then the world was closed for a bit. 2020 and 2021 there were no graduations for the public. This year we were now open and we had a nice graduation celebration in Gilroy. Students invited their guests to come to the celebration.

It was not too hot for this graduation. I brought two 15 inch speakers and it was enough sound for the amphitheater. I used my older 15-inch speakers since they can take a licking and keep on ticking. Even though I had the tanks working for me I had a few more speakers in reserve in my car. Back in 2018 the Gilroy heat took out one of my speakers. Luckily I had another that took its place for the event.

Thirty minutes before the graduation I play the preceremony music while the graduates are getting situated. This time around I went will old school that everyone knows and did something different. I threw in acoustics of songs that everyone knows. I was playing Ed Shereen songs and Rihanna covers.

I like the graduations at Mt Madonna since they have a rose dedication ceremony. The graduates give a rose to someone who was there for them. I play a 3 minutes song, which is plenty of time to find that special someone to give the rose to.

At the end the graduates officially graduate and its party time. I played a festive song and threw in a Spanish banger just to finish things off.